End of week news and notes: Friday 8.15.14

News, notes and observations from LA Observed and selected media sources. Sometimes daily, often in the morning.

Top of the news

Legislation to bump the state's film tax credit pool up to $400 million passed a state Senate committee and looks headed for passage. LAT, DN, Variety, LA Weekly

The executive officer of the State Mining and Geology Board agrees with developers that there are no active earthquake faults underneath several prominent Hollywood projects, including the site of the proposed Millennium Hollywood skyscrapers. LAT

Police Commission president Steven Soboroff said he expects a thorough LAPD investigation of Monday evening's shooting of Ezell Ford, 25, who was walking on 65th Street in the Florence area when confronted by two officers, who say he tried to grab one of the officers' weapons. Family members say he was unarmed, mentally challenged and lying on the ground when shot. They plan to sue. LAT, LA Weekly, NYT, KPCC

The city Ethics Commission voted Thursday to recommend that the City Council look at using cash prizes to lure more people to vote in Los Angeles elections. LAT, KPCC

As LA Times publisher, Austin Beutner holds "a perfect starting point for what could be a 'management buyout' of the Times — and maybe more properties," says Ken Doctor. Plus Register and LANG speculation, and the Tribune Publishing CEO's suit against Aaron Kushner. Nieman Journalism Lab

Tracy Wilkinson of the LA Times is a winner of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism's Maria Moors Cabot Prizes for outstanding reporting on Latin America and the Caribbean. Columbia

Asked on Facebook: "Who in this group remembers when KNXT (KCBS) hired psychologists to 'improve' the newscast anchored by Sandy Hill and Patrick Emory?"

Jonathan Gold talks about the history of the LA food scene, and his connection to the Sunday Hollywood Farmers Market, in a profile. Town & Country

The Hamburger Hamlet in Sherman Oaks will reopen this month under the management of the owners of Killer Shrimp. Eater

With attendance flat and profit lagging, Sea World San Diego announced it would nearly double the size of the tanks where the park's ten captive orcas are kept. LAT, AP

"Junípero Serra: California’s Founding Father" by Stephen W. Hackel "is a thorough, rigorously researched historical document. But it is also a myopic one, confined to the chronology of Serra’s life and more concerned with sacrament than with statecraft." LA Review of Books